


The Break

by inkedintoincognito



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Book 6: The Capture, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 02:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkedintoincognito/pseuds/inkedintoincognito
Summary: Takes place during book six, The Capture.Cassie stops by Jake's house with Marco to check in on Ax. She has a shift to watch the real Jake in a bit, but for now she can sit with Ax and Marco and try to relax for a bit.





	The Break

“How do you think he’s doing?”

There is an unusual beat of silence before Marco speaks. “Well,” he says, “he kind of _has_ to be doing well. No other way we’ll survive this,” he mutters as an afterthought, then laughs.

I nod, shoving my hands deep into my pockets to keep from fiddling with the strap of the overalls. My heart is hammering- it’s been pounding for a day straight, ever since Jake- or, rather, the thing in his head- lost it around Ax.

I couldn’t sleep, it was nearly impossible to concentrate on anything. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jake- the _real_ Jake- buried under the control of the Yeerk that lived in his brother’s head for so long. How awful it would be to be trapped, how claustrophobic, how-

Marco bumped his shoulder into mine as we turn onto Jake’s driveway.

“Hey, it’ll be cool. Ax-man knows what’s at stake, and he’s had more training than we have, right? Artist, or whatever-

“ _Aristh_ -“

“Yeah, yeah. That. There’s no way-“

Just as we step onto the porch, there is a loud crash from inside the house, and then silence. Marco glances at me, but I ignore him; rushing forward to the door, whipping it open.

“Cassie!” he hisses, taking a step back, away from the house.

He’s right to be cautious- after all, it could be anyone in there. A run-of-the-mill robber, or Chapman. Jake’s father, or Visser Three.

But- if anything happened to Jake’s family, and I stood by and did nothing…

I charge past the threshold, ready to morph. Marco isn’t following- he’s probably cursing me, ducking around to the back to scope out the scene, trying to catch the enemy unaware.

Which is probably what I should have done.

I slow down and step closer to the wall.

I make my way through the front hall, towards the kitchen, keeping my mouth shut. I’m not an idiot- I was not going to walk through calling out Jake’s name, despite the brilliant idea of slamming the door open loudly enough to have already called attention to myself.

But no one is charging the hall. I stop for a moment and tilt my head. If I concentrate, I can hear snapping sounds coming from ahead, and wet noises- like a baby slurping soup- underneath.

Oh, god.

I creep forward again until I reach the end of the hall. I bite my tongue, prepare myself for what I may see, and peek around the doorframe, hands shaking, struggling to keep my breath even-

A small blue deer stands in the middle of Jake’s kitchen. He is morphing while trying to back up into the pantry. There are no stalk eyes, like there usually are, and his arms are thicker, tail blade shrinking rapidly into his… back.

He is not doing so fantastically backing up, but he is managing to hold onto several bags of chips at once with one had; a pear and a stick of butter in his other. On the floor, a shattered coffee pot, the dark liquid splattered everywhere.

“Ax!” I shout, despite myself, and step into the kitchen.

<Cassie!> he says, and hugs the chips to his shrinking chest. <I am not finished morphing. Do not let anyone else walk past you!>

“No, it’s fine, it’s just me. And Marco.“

“No, it is _not_ fine!” Marco’s head pops up in the window behind Ax. “Dude, what were you thinking?!”

Ax shakes his head, dropping the chips and grabbing onto the pantry doorframe as his hind legs roll up in a nauseating series of crunches and a mouth splits apart on his face.

“I was merely attempting to obtain some human food,” he says. “Merely. Meeeer. Ear. Lee. Chips, a butter prism, and a green… shape, that is quite sweet.”

Marco’s head disappeared sometime while Ax was sounding out the words, so he had twisted his head to face me.

“I am glad he left. How do you humans- how, how, how, huu, humans- expect to speak to two different people at once, on opposite sides of the field of vision?”

“Ax, that was really dangerous.” It’s both easy and hard to separate this _image_ of Jake from _Jake_. He looks like him, yes, but then Ax will move in a different way, shifting or stumbling in a way Jake never would, and it’s easy to separate the two.

“I was aware of the risks. Isks. I had taken precautions to ensure that I was safe.”

I open my mouth to speak when Marco slams shut the door that I had left open. I flinch, and Ax grabs a basketball jersey and shorts that were hanging over a chair and backs further into the closet as he completes his morph.

“Ax, you idiot! What if that had been Jake’s dad? Or Tom? What would you have done? You are _so lucky_ you are naked right now, or I’d come right over and sock you!”

I frown and look away from the pantry, place my hand on Marco’s shoulder. He is breathing heavily, his eyes angry, but- scared, too.

“Marco,” I say, softly. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

He glances at me out of the corner of his eye and shakes my hand off his shoulder. “We might not have been, though, Cassie.”

“But we are.” I don’t put my hand back on his arm, but I do nudge him with my shoulder. “And we will be. We caught Ax in the mistake- he won’t repeat it again.”

He lets out a long breath as Ax comes out of the pantry, fully- and, surprisingly, correctly- clothed. “Okay.”

“Let’s focus on what we can do from here on out,” I say, and he nods.

“Where,” Ax says, “Is my sock?”

“Huh?” I say, and Marco snorts.

“Cassie talked me out of it,” he says.

“Oh, good.” Ax says. “I have heard from _These Messages_ that they can smell unpleasant.”

Marco shakes his head and crosses his arms. “So, really, Ax, what _were_ you doing?”

Ax nods, then shakes his head. He is still working on picking up some human gestures.

“I told you, Marco. I merely wanted-“

“Yes, but _why were you an Andalite_?!”

“Ah. Well, you only have two legs. And descending- oh! the double _dee_ sound is marvelous-“

“You couldn’t go down the stairs as a human,” I say, and Ax smiles at me.

“Yes. The first time I tried to descend, I fell. Prince Jake’s human mother ran to me.”

Marco smirks, his shoulders falling a bit.

“And what would you have done if that were someone else coming in?”

“Ha. Ha, ha, ha.” Ax says, deadpan. I tighten my lips so that I won’t laugh and look over at Marco, who glances at me with the same expression on his face. We look away quickly, before we loose it. “Marco, I am not a fool. I put a tracking device that I made on Prince Jake’s human father’s car last night. They are miles away, shopping with the Yeerk. I would have been alerted had they been returning.”

“And if it was Visser Three? Or just someone breaking in?”

Ax visibly stiffens at Visser Three’s name. “Then I would have been able to kill him in my own superior form.”

Marco sighs and makes his way over to a chair to sit down, watches as Ax begins collecting the chips that he dropped.

“Well, it’s over,” I say. “And Ax won’t do it again. Right, Ax?”

“Not unless I need to descend the stairs to get some delicious salt,” he says, sliding up the doorframe with the chips.

“No, Ax, you can’t do it at all.”

Ax stares at Marco, who is tapping his foot rapidly against the floor. He narrows his eyes, watching, before he nods. “Okay. I will not.”

I can see Marco starting to get riled up again, so I clap my hands.

“Good!” I say, more loudly than necessary, and walk over to Ax, grabbing all the chips from around his feet. He makes to grab for them, but I toss two back in the pantry and shut it, spinning and walking towards the family room. “Let’s go eat.”

Ax follows me quickly down the hall, and I can hear Marco trudging along behind.

Jake’s family room is very comfortable- plush couches and a ton of afghans that his grandmother knitted. I’ve been in here once or twice. Not that anyone needs to know that.

I throw myself down in the middle of the couch, pat the spaces beside me when Marco and Ax walk in.

“Come on. Animal Planet is running a special on lemurs.”

Marco groans and rolls his eyes, but plops down beside me.

I grab the remote as Ax sits, tune in to Animal Planet, and lean back. The show starts, and I half listen in, but watch Marco out of the corner of my eye. He’s worried about Jake, I know. We both are. But Marco, as usual, is less optimistic than I am. And he doesn’t trust Ax, not yet. He’s wound too tight, his finger tapping against his thigh, even though he is trying to appear relaxed.

I feign a sigh, toss him the remote.

“I’ve seen this one. Turn to the ball game, or whatever.”

He eyes me suspiciously, but doesn’t hesitate to grab the remote. He flips through the channels until he comes across some basketball game. I’m relieved to see that there’s a tie- that should keep it exciting. At least, that’s when my dad gets most excited during games.

One of the teams scores as I’m mulling that over.

Marco throws his arms up in the air and lets out a shout, and I smile to myself and glance over at Ax, who has shown marvelous restraint up until this point and not gone into berserker mode over the food. He is, though, currently raising the stick of butter to his mouth, wrapper and all.

I snatch it from him, and, against my better judgment, unwrap the top half before handing it back to him. I turn away before I have to watch him eat straight butter. And the wrapper, despite my efforts.

“Yes!” he shouts, and Marco glances over, his face going green.

“Oh, man, Ax, no,” he moans, and imitates vomiting. “That’s disgusting.” I grin, but refuse to turn around until I hear the smacking noises- almost as disgusting as morphing noises- stop.

Ax is smiling, butter all over his cheeks. “Delicious!” he cries, and I laugh. “Prince Jake’s human food is full of salt and cream- another marvelous flavor!”

He reaches for the chips on the table, and Marco leans over and snags one before Ax can grab them all. He rips it open as Ax does, but offers it to me instead of holding the bag over his open mouth.

“So salty! So delicious!”

I grab a handful and sit back, watching the game fade into commercials.

Ax stops eating for a moment and sits up. “This one is my favorite,” he says, and goes silent, staring at the television, where a cook is putting together a Big Mac. “See,” he says, “how carefully he makes the food? That is because he cares.”

“I hate to break it to you,” Marco says, “but real McDonald’s cooks do not care about the food they’re making.”

“No, they do,” Ax says simply.

“No-“

“Shh!” Marco blinks as Ax turns back to the television, humming along to the end jingle. He faces us again as it ends. “That song is delightful. I, too, love it.”

“Did you really shush me over a commercial?” Marco screeches.

Ax nods. “ _These Messages_ are my favorite part.”

“How do you even-“

“I made a television. Much more crude than I would have liked, but they do not throw away much at the electronics store. Now, please, shhh. There are many more messages before your favorite part comes back on.”

“Ax, come on-“

“Marco, I did not speak during your human game. Shh.”

Marco stares at Ax, wide-eyed, before looking at me.

“Oh. My god,” he says.

I place a finger to my lips. “Shh! _These Messages_ are on!”

His eyes widen even more before a smile breaks on his face, and when he stars laughing I join in.

“Shhh!” Ax says, and this makes me laugh harder, that blissful white-out of all other thoughts except for the desire to keep laughing taking over. I haven’t felt that in a long time. Sure, we laugh often after narrowly escaping death. But that’s relief, not happiness. It’s nothing like this.

“Shhh yourself!” Marco manages to hiss out between laughter, which throws us deeper into the fit, falling back against the cushions.

Finally, after what feels like forever, we slow down, gasping. The game is coming back on- Ax glares at us before going back to his chips.

“Oh man,” Marco says, wiping at his eyes. “That wasn’t even that funny.”

“It was hilarious,” I say, and we giggle before someone scores in the game and Marco cheers.

I wipe some of the chips that Ax is spilling off my leg and sit forward. My stomach is tight from laughing, but that’s the only tense part about me right now. My heart is slow, my breathing is even, my shoulders are low. For the first time in- what, months?- I feel at ease.

Even though Jake-

Marco throws an arm around my shoulder. “There we go!” he shouts, pointing at the T.V. with his other hand. “Whoo hoo! Bring the pain!” I snort and shrug him off me, reaching for more chips. Ax is through his second bag, garbling something intelligible through the food in his mouth.

A few more minutes pass, and then Marco leans back, crossing his ankles. “I don’t like either of these teams.”

I laugh, throwing a hand up to keep the chips in my mouth. He grins, tossing the remote at Ax.

“Here you go, buddy. You know what’s on right now. You choose.”

Ax reaches out too late and fumbles with the controller, his fingers covered with butter and chip dust.

“I will keep us on _These Messages_ ,” Ax says, and flips down a channel to a commercial. Marco groans, dropping his head against the pillow.

“That was a mistake,” he says. “But one I should have seen coming.”

I nod solemnly, grab the chips from his lap. “A mistake marking you as undeserving of holding these.”

Marco pretends to wipe away a tear. “A harsh but understandable judgment.”

While I’m still facing Marco, Ax grabs the bag from me and stuffs his hand inside, shoving them into his mouth. “These are my least favorite. But they are still good.”

“How dare you. These are the best flavor ever made.”

“No. That is barbeque. Barb. Arb. E-q. Que. See, even the name is wonderful.”

Marco leans over me to steal the chips from Ax. “Okay, I’ve been judged to be undeserving of holding the bag, but you, saying that, definitely don’t deserve to even look at this bag.” He drops it back on my lap and I latch onto it as Ax reaches for it again.

“He’s right, Ax. Anyone that bad-mouths sour cream and onion like that doesn’t deserve them. Sorry.” Normally, I wasn’t one for play fighting, but seeing Marco act lively in a way that wasn’t revolving around his trying to keep himself sane? It’s so uplifting that I’m going to go along with it.

“Salt!”

“Not this time.” I hand the chips back to Marco.

Ax pouts, but the television is enough to satiate him. He’s probably also planning to raid the pantry again as soon as we leave. Something about Skittles comes on.

“So, how is it going?” I ask, after the commercial ends. “Other than the stair incident.”

“It is going well. They believe that I am Prince Jake. And there were no other incidents.”

“One day down, two to go.”

“I will be sorry to give up all of Prince Jake’s food. But I will be glad when he has returned.”

I want to hug Ax for saying ‘when.’

“So when are Jake’s parents supposed to get back?”

“Not until six o’clock. Of your time.” Ax slaps his hands against his knees. “They are going to bring me Panda Express for dinner. I have requested sesame chicken, vegetable- edge. Edgetable. Veg- fried rice, and beef bites. I am very excited for them to return.”

“Oh, man. We’re so lucky Jake already eats a lot,” Marco says.

“Yes. Quite lucky. And that Prince Jake does not have any classes. I have seen his science grades. It would be hard to pretend to be as wrong as he often is.”

I pretend like I don’t hear that. For Jake’s sake.

“Is Prince Jake doing well?” Ax asks, suddenly.

I look to Marco. He’s seen him most recently. “Yeah,” he says. “Last I saw him, he was fine. Physically, at least. I guess we won’t know how it is mentally until he’s… freed.”

“But he’s strong,” I say.

“Big, strong Jake,” Marco mumbles, and I elbow him.

“Mentally, I mean. And he has us. We’ll help him, whatever he needs.”

Ax smiles. “Yes. We will.”

“We’ll help anyone, no matter what they need,” I go on, and pat Marco’s arm and Ax’s knee. “We’re all there for each other.”

Ax nods, more solemnly this time. “I will do my best.”

Marco rolls his eyes and leans back. “Okay, let’s not get too mushy-feely. We don’t want Jake getting any wrong ideas when he gets the report Ax is sure to give.”

I scoff, lean back. Ax follows suit, and we focus back in on the television. A show has started up, so Ax clicks the remote until he finds a commercial.

I glance at the clock, and am calculating how long I have until I have to get to Jake for my shift when Marco leans over. “Thanks for coming here with me,” he mutters, and doesn’t meet my eye when I look over. I turn back to the television and the anti-smoking ad, fighting a smile for a moment before letting it win.

**Author's Note:**

> An Animorphs Secret Santa gift for the lovely rosanimorphs, who arranged the whole thing!!


End file.
